Strange Attractor – Volume 1 – Sadhus, Sannyasis, Ascetic Mendicants And Renouncers

This anthology features Tom Vater’s essay Sadhus, Sannyasis, Ascetic Mendicants And Renouncers. Strange Attractor is a journal that celebrates unpopular culture. We declare war on mediocrity and a pox on the foot soldiers of stupidity.’ Published 2004. “One of the most weirdly beautiful, beautifully weird magazines of the past hundred-odd years. It smacks far more of […]

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Sadhus, Sannyasis, Ascetic Mendicants And Renouncers – India’s Holy Men

The Wild Holy Men Of India, Caught Between Past and Present Boom Boom Baba Boom Boom Baba sits on a stone platform above the Benares ghats, the steps where millions of Hindu pilgrims come to bathe every year. “I am Naga, I am very dangerous. But I will pray for you and make a good […]

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Chuwit Kamolvisit – Thailand’s Godfather of Sex turns politician

Chuwit Kamolvisit is one of Thailand’s best-known celebrities. He fills newspapers and magazines and appears on national television every day. He is charismatic and media-friendly. But Chuwit is not a pop star or an actor. Chuwit is a sex king. He is the king of the largest sex industry on the planet. For the last […]

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Welcome to Sonagachi – Calcutta’s largest brothel area is thriving

“I have been in Sonagachi for 25 years. I rent this room for 114 Rupees a month. This is my home.” Champa Das has invited me into her home. Champa Das has been a sex worker all her adult life. Sonagachi is one of Calcutta’s largest red light districts – narrow alleys, lined with small ‘apartments’ […]

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The Battle For Catfish – Orissa’s Fishermen Struggle for Catches

The Andhra fishermen of Puri on India’s east coast are fighting for cultural, financial and spiritual survival. First light on Puri Beach. Pentacotta fishing village, which grows like a misshapen appendix from the resort’s northern beach front, is coming to life. More than 10.000 people from Andhra Pradesh live in small one-storey stone and mud […]

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Killing Time in Kathmandu – A Meeting with Charles Sobhraj, in Penthouse Australia

Charles Sobhraj, one of the world’s most notorious serial killer celebrities, also known as the “Bikini Killer’ and the ‘Serpent’ was convicted for murder in 2004 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Prior to his conviction I spoke with one of the allegedly scariest men alive, as well as his captor, police officer Ganesh K.C. who had no […]

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From Backpacker-Ghetto to Global Shopping Mall – Joe Cummings on Bangkok’s Khao San Road, in The South China Morning Post

Khao San Road, one of the world’s greatest and most fascinating tourist ghettos, is coming of age. Last week the first MacDonald’s outlet opened inside one of the guesthouse complexes on the strip. Legendary hippy hangout, subject of a Hollywood blockbuster and barely more than 300 metres long, the Khao San Road offers a stop-over […]

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